Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns; why should we let them have ideas?
Joseph Stalin
Incoming San Luis Obispo County sheriff Ian Parkinson will encounter one additional headache when he takes office in January: A powerful California gun advocacy group plans a major campaign to make firearm carrying permits easily obtainable to all “law abiding Californians.”
Brandon Combs, a Calguns Foundation director, announced the initiative with some pointed talk: “Many sheriff’s don’t want citizens to see to the current reality of the right to bear arms in their county. It’s time that we hold these officials accountable,” he said.
Calguns has launched a new “carry license” web portal, and a parallel initiative to attempt bringing local governments “into compliance with state law,” said Combs.
The Calguns Foundation and a network of volunteers collected from most of the state’s 58 sheriffs public documents related to citizen gun licenses, and explanations from each of what “good cause” (as a rationale for carrying a concealed weapon) constitutes.
“After reviewing a small sample of the records,” said Combs, “we knew we had to make a real effort to clean up policies that violate state or federal law across the state.”
Ventura County officials have so far refused to comply with the request, and face litigation. (Read San Luis Obispo County’s rules here.)